


Friendly proposals

by TV_addict_86



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pia's summer madness challenge, Roommates, oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 14:34:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15887988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TV_addict_86/pseuds/TV_addict_86
Summary: You know those posts where someone finds out you can get a spousal grant, or benefits you're not eligible for unless you're considered independent? And all you need to do is show you're married? Yeah, well, when Bucky is facing dropping out because he can't pay his tuition fee, his roommate Steve finds the same info.





	Friendly proposals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abovethesmokestacks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abovethesmokestacks/gifts).



> This is written for Pia's Summer Madness Challenge over on Tumblr! I'm so sorry it's late, I hope you enjoy it anyway :)  
> The prompt for this story was "We are not getting married" and is written in bolded text.

“Give it a rest Stevie,” Bucky sighed, “I checked every financial aid option out there, there’s nothing else to it. I’ll just get a job until I’m 24 and then start over or something.”

“You’re not dropping out Buck, we’ll figure something out.” He kept scrolling mulishly through the dozen or so tabs he had open about college tuition, loan applications, scholarships and anything else he could think of that would help Bucky pay for college.

There wasn’t a whole lot that Bucky hadn’t already tried, he hadn’t been lying when he told Steve he exhausted his options.

 

“You know you’re not considered automatically independent by your 24th birthday? You have to be 24 on January first for that to work. That’s almost an entire extra year of not going to school Buck!”

Steve heard Bucky groan into the pillows of the couch he was basically drowning in. “Can you just.. not right now? Let’s just drink tonight and forget about it, we can pick this up again in the morning”

“Fine, yeah that’s. Let’s do that, this is depressing” Steve sighed.

***

“Buck!” Steve burst through Bucky’s bedroom door the next morning, laptop in hand, “Buck, I think I got it!”

“Ungfh” was the only response he got.

“C’mon Buck, told you you weren’t dropping out!” He said excitedly as he dropped down on the foot of Bucky’s bed.

“Steve...” Bucky groaned, “Stevie. ‘s still bedtime. See?” An arm came waving from under the duvet in the general direction of the window, “drapes closed, still bedtime, now shhh”.

 

He tucked his hand back under his pillow and wiggled around a little to get comfortable again when Steve said, “Fine, sleep the day away. Just thought you should know we’re getting married and you’re not dropping out.” With a pat to the leg sticking out from under Bucky’s duvet he got up and made his way back to their living room.

The wiggling immediately stopped, but Steve had made it back to the living room by the time he heard Bucky shout “What?!”

***

“We are not getting married.” Bucky said as he launched himself over the back of the couch, landing close to Steve and making the couch dip just enough to make him lean into Bucky a little.

It had taken Bucky a considerable amount of time to actually manage to get out of bed after Steve's very unexpected proposal of sorts, but eventually he got up and after pointedly opening the drapes he joined Steve in their shared living room. 

Steve closed his sketchbook and glanced over at Bucky’s face. His face flushed as he said maybe a little too loud “You’re not dropping out Buck. Besides, we can just get a divorce or something in a couple years when everything's settled” he finished in a much more subdued tone.

The casual nonchalance Steve was trying to portray seemed a little forced to Bucky, but he wrote it off as the lingering side-effects of being raised Catholic, even if the religion hadn't quite stuck.

He didn’t look at Steve as he replied “No. We’re not getting married.” He crossed his arms and sank down a little further in the couch, but didn’t say anything else. Steve would’ve sworn he saw a pout on those lips but knew better than to comment. Noticing Bucky's pout wasn’t uncommon for Steve, but commenting on it would bring attention to the fact that noticing Bucky’s lips was something he did. He did, often, but Bucky didn’t need to know that.

So instead he did what he did best. He argued. “Why would you choose to drop out if we can just get married? We already live together, I don’t know if this is the kind of situation where people would come and check if we’re actually together but I seriously doubt it.”

He had a hard time sounding as confident as he wanted to be, because the mere idea of getting married to Bucky made his heart skip a beat. He knew they were just friends and had been forever, it wasn’t like this would suddenly change just because they signed their names on a piece of paper, but still. It’d be a bit strange proposing marriage to the guy you low-key had a crush on since hitting puberty without getting a little jittery. Even if it was for a sham marriage.

 

When Bucky stayed silent, still glowering at the coffee table instead of at him, Steve soldiered on. Best to get it all out at once so everything was out in the open. “It’s not as if the divorce’ll be difficult right. Won’t even cost much, I checked. The people that complain about divorce being expensive are just all those folks fighting each other on every decision. We can just have one of those friendly divorces where we both agree to it and stay friends after. I think it’s the lawyers fighting with each other that makes divorce expensive.”

Bucky still wasn’t looking at him, or even arguing back. Which was odd. He usually at least glared at Steve whenever he did or said something stupid. Bucky’s jaw tightened and he looked away. He muttered something, but Steve didn’t catch what he said.

 

“C’mon Buck, is the idea of getting married to me really so bad you’d rather drop out of school?” he asked.

“What, no!” Bucky finally turned towards Steve with an incredulous look on his face. “You're an idiot if that’s what you think!” he said as he got up and walked around the couch. He turned on the spot so he was facing Steve again, but for once Steve couldn’t get a read on his face. “Getting married isn’t the hard part Steve, it’s the part where it’s a sham and the part where we’re already planning the divorce that I don’t think I can do! Do you seriously not know this? I mean I know you’ve always just kinda ignored the awkward one-sided feelings thing for the sake of our friendship, but - damn it I can’t do this” he muttered as he made his way into the kitchen, away from Steve.

 

For a minute Steve stayed seated, dumbfounded, listening to Bucky getting a glass of water and draining it in a few gulps. Bucky was filling his glass for the second time when Steve found his voice again and said softly, “feelings?”.

“Oh don’t pretend this is news. We talked about this years ago!” Bucky sighed in frustration and put his glass down. “I know you meant well, but it’s just a bad idea all 'round.”

Steve followed Bucky into the kitchen and when he turned towards him again he was shocked to see him so withdrawn. “What the hell d’you mean Buck? We’ve never talked about anything like this at all”.

“Yeah we did. Back in high school. One of those stupid hot days when we couldn’t decide if it was a better idea to just stay inside where the sun couldn’t get us or to sit outside where we could maybe still catch a bit of a breeze, so we just kinda -”

“Hung out on the fire-escape?” Steve finished with a chuckle as Bucky trailed off.

“Yeah.” Bucky said. “I made some stupid joke you thought was hilarious for some reason and you were laughing your ass off. That’s when I couldn’t stop myself and I told you I loved you and you just kept laughing until you said ‘I love you too Buck, you’re my best friend’. So I just... never brought it up again.”

“Buck...” Steve said, “I -”

But Bucky interrupted him, “No it’s fine Steve, just, let’s just forget about this and find some other way I can stay in school alright”.

“No.” Steve said forcefully, “I am not forgetting about this, because apparently we don’t know each other as well as I thought we did, because you’ve got it all wrong if you think any feelings you might have are one-sided.”

Bucky had never looked more like a deer caught in headlights as he did just then. “Huh?” was his eloquent response, because he honestly wasn’t capable of anything resembling an actual sentence at that point. “How, wait, what?” That wasn’t all that much better, but at least they were actual words if not yet a sentence.

 

“I have been in love with you since I was fourteen years old and you were cleaning cuts on my knuckles for the umpteenth time. You love me, you said so and you can’t take it back. So, we might as well get married – no be quiet Buck, I’m talking now – we might as well get married without the divorce-plans, so we can spend the rest of our lives together and you can stay in school.”

“How would it look if I accepted a proposal from a guy I only just started dating Steve?” Bucky replied with the dopiest grin Steve had ever seen on his face.

 

*the end*


End file.
